Students attending the 'Earth Force Denver Youth Summit 2011' at Manual High School in Denver play the Make It Rain game.

Every year is a good year to celebrate the wonders and importance of
water, but 2012 is a very special year. The whole state of Colorado is
celebrating together thanks to a statewide effort of dozens of
organizations. The Colorado Foundation for Water Education[1] is
facilitating this campaign.

The Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University is
participating in this special year-long water celebration by encouraging every school in Colorado to help us measure and map precipitation. Thanks to generous sponsors, we have rain gauges for nearly every school in Colorado. Now all we have to do is find hosts at each school — a teacher or staff member, an administrator, a student or a community/school volunteer.

If it wasn’t for occasional storms crossing our state, we would not have much water. The weather brings our water. Each and every drop is
important. Each year is another adventure in “Will we have enough?”
March through June is especially important as we watch the snow that has accumulated in the mountains (not so much lately) melt and pour down into our rivers and streams.

This is a great time to set up an official “Water 2012″ rain gauge and help the Colorado Climate Center track our arriving water. Precipitation varies so much from year to year and from place to place in Colorado that we literally need every school that we can possibly convince to be part of this special project.

If you are a teacher or affiliated with any of the nearly 2,000 schools
in Colorado, please contact our education coordinator, Noah Newman, by
e-mail: education@cocorahs.org. He will help you get signed up and
trained.

Noah will be attending water festivals all over Colorado this year
sharing the “Make it Rain” game with students. If you would like Noah to “Make it Rain’ at your school, please contact him to see if he
has an opening on his schedule.

P.S. We started the CoCoRaHS project here in Fort Collins after the
catastrophic flash flood back in July 1997. Precipitation data
collected by volunteers at their own homes, schools and businesses are
remarkably helpful. Improved weather predication and storm warnings,
water supply forecasts, tracking agricultural production and insect
hatches are just a few examples. Please help.